$500 REI Hardtail

Check out my CO-OP DRT 1.1 mountain bike. It’s one of REI’s new lineup, and offers a lot of bang for your buck!

This bike performs as well as any $500 bike I’ve found. Not only is the bike a good value, but REI offers great warranty, maintenance, and repair support. This bike definitely gets my seal of approval!

If you liked the video, you may like some of my others. There are “how to” videos for bike repairs and upgrades, fun trail riding on my bikes, and reviews of bikes that wont break the bank!

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5:23 Trek is great at an awful package, with bad component choices, bad compromise choices, their full suspension bikes are not good enough for me, my next bike won’t be a Trek.
flexible, rocker ling crack, chainstay needs to be replaced every year.
best bike you can get is the one you build your self of components on sales, or by searching for the best price and getting used components for the great price, like buying from a pro rider, which is rare, but happens. takes some tiem to do it this way of course.
but the best thing to do is to buy a used bike by a reputable seller, for example a long time forum meber, or pro rider.

hi there, i also got the same bike 1.1 for myself and 1.1w for my wife. we both love them very much. i am interested to know if you would have a DIY on changing the forks. I also feel the one came from the 1.1 is hard, and not much of “suspension” at all.

Thanks for this review, man. Very helpful and useful info. I’m thinking about getting this bike. I’m totally new to mountain biking, considering my fitness level and limited biking experience I probably wont do any real hard riding, but I want a real bike that wont fall apart on the first bump in the trail. This looks like a great bike to start, make some upgrades along the way, and for somebody like me I may not even need another bike. Thanks again for the info, I’ll check out some of your other vids.

Funny, I just did the same thing. I bought a $400 Cannondale for a care free rider. I was actually surprised that its an okay bike. I changed the fork, pedals, and tires. The only real issue seems to be the spindal/bottom bracket. It seems to have bent slightly. I will probably upgrade the entire driveline at some point.

after a while, i would destroy the crank, I destroy cheap Shimano cranks in few months. they are way too flexible for me too. don’t be surprised if the pedals fall off or if the spider gets twisted. I can’t use square taper bottom brackets cus I wear them out in days.
same goes for cheap Shimano hubs, I wear the freehubs in few days, not when I was a kid.

a misconception people have is that expensive means great, my bike cost more than double(2014 Trek fuel ex 7 29er) of this one but the frame has a flawed design, it’s too flexible, crank failed, spoke nipples failed, the list goes on.
So having the knowledge about the components and selecting each component is crucial for best performing bike, so doing demos reading nad watchign reviews, is important.

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